Dear CCCA Friends and Colleagues,
It has been a tremendous honor and privilege to serve as President of California Contract Cities Association (Contract Cities) over the past year. Although the latter part of my presidency is ending with us facing an uncertain future, I am confident our association's leadership is well-equipped to see us through these difficult times.
Recently, our Executive Board made the difficult choice to cancel our Annual Municipal Seminar in order to protect the health and safety of our members and guests. We have also acted to cancel all upcoming events through May. These decisions came only after we saw no viable path to ensure the health and safety of everyone. Our Annual Municipal Seminar has been Southern California's premier gathering of local elected officials and always provides our attendees with numerous opportunities to network, collaborate, and learn from one another on how to best serve our communities. We will, however, continue our work in other ways while we all comply with social distancing guidelines. Rest assured we will return to our regular programming as soon as the situation permits.
All of us are doing our part to stem the growth of COVID-19 and ensure critical public services continue without disruption. In keeping with the tradition of service, our Contract Cities staff has also been doing its part to serve our membership. As many of you are aware, we have launched our own COVID-19 Updates and Resources webpage to serve as a guide to federal, state, and local information and updates with helpful links for cities as we all adjust to new ways of doing business.
Over the next several weeks, Contract Cities staff will be emailing ballots to our city delegates to elect our 2020-2021 Executive Board Officers. The same procedure will take place in May for approval of our 2020-2021 Budget. We are making some steep cuts in our spending to ensure the viability of our association well into the future. This is an important time for the association as we must maintain continuity in our steadfast leadership and continue the invaluable work of advocacy and education on behalf of our membership.
As I look back on my term as your president, I want to thank each of our member cities for your dedication to improving our cities and association through your participation all year. Your advocacy and engagement are essential to our success and it has had a tremendous impact on local and state policy decisions. With the legislature and the county practicing social distancing and given the uncertainty of future legislative actions, please rest assured Contract Cities will continue to do its part to strengthen local control while protecting our cities. These unprecedented times will undoubtedly impact us all and it is vital we continue our advocacy efforts.
Lastly, I want to welcome and congratulate all newly and reelected councilmembers to the Contract Cities family. I know each of you will do your part to serve and protect your communities.
On behalf of the Contract Cities family, we appreciate your continued support of our association and our efforts to be your voice at home and in Sacramento. I encourage everyone to remain engaged and continue to participate in our programming through these tough times. We are all in this together.
I wish you all safety and health and am looking forward to spending time with you all in the very near future. God bless each and every one of you.
Sincerely,
President, California Contract Cities Association
Mayor, City of Rosemead
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Executive Director's Update
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 First, I would like to extend a very special thank you to all of you for your leadership during this difficult time. These are the times when the best leaders among us step up and take charge and lead the way. I am honored to be surrounded by so many great leaders who are out there serving your respective cities and organizations.
In the midst of this uncertainty, I want you to know that our Contract Cities staff is here to support all our members - councilmembers, city staff, and associate members - by helping you stay informed and engaged with the latest current policy changes and you work to meet the challenges that lie ahead. Contract Cities is here to support you and your city with regular updates on COVID-19, including supporting our members with their COVID-19 responses, coordinating weekly briefings with our partners at the County of Los Angeles, while working to address the fiscal concerns the crisis will have on public services.
It's important we continue to collaborate during these unprecedented times; our cities' perseverance is displayed in their response to COVID-19 and their persistence to protecting our communities. I strongly encourage each member, city staff member, and elected official to review our COVID-19 resources page where we provide numerous resources and tools available to our cities, including:
Finally, I would like to congratulate and welcome all of our newly elected and re-elected council members to the Contract Cities Family!
Please let us know how we can continue to support your efforts by emailing me at
marcel@contractcities.org or texting/calling me at (562) 639-6736. I wish you and your families health and happiness.
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In accordance with physical-distancing orders, the following events have been canceled. Refunds for AMS will be issued in the coming weeks.
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The CCCA Legislative Committee continues to review legislation, amid the extended break in the legislative session. Below are the bills voted on by the Committee.
- Position: Support
- Docs: Support Letter, Fact Sheet
- Summary: This bill would require the Department of Transportation, within its maintenance program, to establish a Homeless Encampment and Litter Program to provide timely abatement and cleanup of homeless encampments on department property and expedited and coordinated access to housing and supportive services. The bill would require the department to coordinate with homeless service provider agencies and to establish homeless adult and family multidisciplinary personnel teams. The bill would require the department, upon receiving a report of a homeless encampment, to deploy a multidisciplinary personnel team to expedite and coordinate access to housing and supportive services for occupants of the encampment.
- Position: Watch
- Docs: Fact Sheet
- Summary: Current law provides for the calculation of the amount of density bonus for each type of housing development that qualifies under specified provisions under the Density Bonus Law. Current law specifies the number of incentives or concessions that an applicant can receive. Current law specifies that an applicant shall receive 3 incentives or concessions for projects that include at least 30% of the total units for lower income households, at least 15% for very low income households, or at least 30% for persons or families of moderate income in a common interest development. This bill, instead, would authorize an applicant to receive 3 incentives or concessions for projects described above that include at least 12% of the total units for very low income households.
- Position: Support
- Docs: Fact Sheet
- Summary: This bill would enact the California Circular Economy and Pollution Reduction Act, which would impose a comprehensive regulatory scheme on producers, retailers, and wholesalers of single-use packaging, as defined, and priority single-use products, as defined, to be administered by the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery. As part of that regulatory scheme, the bill would require the department, before January 1, 2024, to adopt regulations that require producers, as defined, to source reduce, to the maximum extent feasible, single-use packaging and priority single-use products, and to ensure that all single-use packaging and priority single-use products that are manufactured on or after January 1, 2030, and that are offered for sale, sold, distributed, or imported in or into California are recyclable or compostable.
- Position: Support
- Docs: Support Letter, Fact Sheet
- Summary: This bill would establish in state government the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Program, which would be administered by the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Committee. The bill would authorize a city, county, city and county, joint powers agency, enhanced infrastructure financing district, affordable housing authority, community revitalization and investment authority, transit village development district, or a combination of those entities, to apply to the Affordable Housing and Community Development Investment Committee to participate in the program and would authorize the committee to approve or deny plans for projects meeting specific criteria.
- Position: Watch
- Docs: Fact Sheet
- Summary: Current law, until January 1, 2026, authorizes a development proponent to submit an application for a multifamily housing development that satisfies specified planning objective standards to be subject to a streamlined, ministerial approval process, as provided, and not subject to a conditional use permit. This bill would provide that a neighborhood multifamily project is a use by right in zones where residential uses are permitted if the project is not located in a very high fire severity zone, does not demolish sound rental housing or housing that has been placed on a national or state historic register, follows specified local objective criteria, and meets specified density requirements.
The Legislative Committee meets the fourth Wednesday of each month via teleconference. For inquiries regarding any of CCCA's legislative positions, please contact Michael Vuong at
michael@contractcities.org
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